Sunday, June 27, 2010

Guest Artist - Mike Ortiz

I got a temp gig working at Independence Comics thanks to Pete the owner. He had quite a bit of inventory in the store and he needed all the comics sorted and counted. He also hired another person, Mike Ortiz. Mike was a very nice and funny guy. He was able to mimic the original Bugs Bunny laugh dead on. Also, he was a fellow comic artist. He had made contact with Dave and before I knew it he was in negotiations to work on a project for Grubbmaster Pieces. He had stopped drawing for some time but after seeing my stuff it inspired him to start working on his old creation, Super Stick Figure. Much like Unbelievable Laundry Detergent Man, it was a silly name to a serious character. SSF was a big bulky...alien type character. I remember one day he brought in his pages to show me. To my surprise, he had some special guest stars in his story. The Rebels of Razura. I had never seen anybody else draw my characters and this was the first time ever. It was such an honor and it looked great. Sadly, I never got a copy of those pages but I was given this great pinup by Mike.

Sadly, things fizzled quickly with Dave and Mike. I remember one day Mike told me he was a bit upset that Dave wanted him to draw an idea of his rather then he work on his own stuff. He wanted the same privilege I was given to draw and write whatever I wanted. I'm not sure really why things fell apart between them but I was sad to never see him put out his own work. I am grateful though that he did a pin-up for me.